KOTA SAMARAHAN: Sarawak Customs have foiled an attempt to smuggle contraband cigarettes, seizing various brands worth RM1.97mln.
Sarawak Customs director Datuk Sharifah Halimah Tuanku Taha said a raid took place on Thursday in a residential area in Merdang Gayam here.
“The raiding team found 322 master case equivalent to 2.95 million sticks of cigarettes without duty stamp.
“We also found contraband cigarettes in a vehicle parked within the vicinity of the premises,” she said in a statement yesterday.
Sharifah Halimah added that the smugglers’ modus operandi was to use a residential property as storage to avoid detection.
The vehicle, she believed, was used to distribute the contraband to the local market.
The case is being investigated under Section 135(1)(d) of the Customs Act 1967, and if convicted the suspect(s) could be fined 20 times the amount of customs duty or jailed not exceeding five years.
